Mike Pence opposes RFK Jr. for HHS because of support for abortion access
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence, who did not endorse or support President-elect Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle, said Friday that he opposes Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because of Kennedy’s support for abortion access.
Pence said in a statement that choosing Kennedy is a departure from what he framed as the Trump-Pence administration’s general opposition to abortion access.
“I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades,” Pence wrote.
Pence claimed that Kennedy, for most of his career, has supported positions such as “abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy” and restoring Roe v. Wade.
“The pro-life movement has always looked to the Republican party to stand for life, to affirm an unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed,” Pence wrote.
“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” he added.
During his 2024 run, Trump said laws surrounding abortion access should be left up to individual states to decide.
Kennedy’s own position on abortion had lacked some clarity throughout his independent presidential campaign, which he suspended in August as he endorsed Trump.
He said at one point that he opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade, and in one interview he argued that “we have to leave it to the women rather than the state.”
In 2023, he told NBC News he would sign a federal ban on the procedure after three months, but his campaign later walked back the comments, saying he “misunderstood” the question. In May 2024, he said he advocates a woman’s right to choose an abortion at any point during her pregnancy.
He later wrote in a post on X, after some blowback, that he “would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.” And in June, he wrote on social media, “Abortion has been a notoriously divisive issue in America, but actually I see an emerging consensus: that abortion should be legal up until a certain number of weeks, and restricted thereafter.”
Some groups that oppose abortion access have also criticized Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy.
In a statement to ABC News, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said her group has “concerns” about Kennedy leading HHS.
“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Dannenfelser wrote. “I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established.”
Groups that support abortion access have also criticized Trump’s selection of Kennedy.
Mini Timmaraju, CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, wrote in a statement Thursday, “Trump ran on a promise not to ban abortion nationwide, but his cabinet nominees are Project 2025 come to life. RFK Jr. is an unfit, unqualified extremist who cannot be trusted to protect the health, safety, and reproductive freedom of American families.”
ABC News reached out to Kennedy for comment.
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin, Ben Siegel, and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said Thursday he believes anti-obesity drugs “have a place.”
The comment, given in a brief interview to CNBC off the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, was the strongest suggestion yet that, if confirmed to take over the Department Health and Human Services, Kennedy wouldn’t necessarily move to block access to a class of drugs that he’s sharply criticized in the past but that doctors are hailing as a powerful tool in the obesity epidemic.
When asked how he felt by drugs that mimic the actions of the GLP-1 hormone, Kennedy said “the first line of response should be lifestyle, it should be eating well, making sure that you don’t get obese, and that those GLP drugs have a place.”
Kennedy’s aside comes one day after Trump adviser Elon Musk said he believes “nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors super low cost to the public.”
The seeming endorsement of medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound from two people who have Trump’s ear is likely to be a relief for the pharmaceutical industry following Kennedy’s sharp questioning of America’s reliance on weight-loss medications. Previously, Kennedy has said that if America paid more for quality food, it would solve the obesity crisis “overnight” — a statement obesity experts criticized as overly simplistic.
Still in question is how the incoming administration plans to handle coverage of the drugs through Medicare and Medicaid and any regulation of the private insurance industry.
The Biden administration has called for Medicare and Medicaid to expand coverage of weight-loss drugs for people struggling with obesity, not just as a treatment for diabetes. But because that rule won’t kick in until 2026, it’ll be up to the incoming administration to enact.
Covering GLP-1 drugs under federal health insurance programs would come at a significant cost to the country. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs in Medicare alone would increase federal spending by about $35 billion from 2026 to 2034.
Calley Means, a top adviser to Kennedy, has criticized the Biden proposal’s embrace of weight-loss drugs instead of pushing lifestyle changes and suggested that the incoming administration should work on “benefit flexibility where patients can work with their doctors on the best solution to reverse obesity for them,” including “lifestyle coaching, food interventions, or, in some cases, drugs.”
Means also said the government should ensure the price mirrors European costs.
“The problem isn’t that Ozempic exists,” Means tweeted on Thursday. “It is the fact that this Danish company has been able to pay US regulators, media, and lawmakers to force this drug down our throats as the only option.”
In the CNBC interview on Thursday, Kennedy also reiterated his stance that he doesn’t oppose all vaccines.
While Kennedy has said he’s not opposed to all vaccines, he has falsely claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, despite the retraction of the fraudulent study that originally suggested this link, and numerous subsequent high-quality studies disproving this theory.
In a Time magazine interview, Trump said the issue of vaccine safety still warrants a “big discussion” and that he would be open to restricting some vaccines if Kennedy found them “dangerous.”
Kennedy has said he is “fully vaccinated,” except against COVID-19.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday delivered a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the federal government’s hurricane response.
Speaking on Hurricane Milton at the White House on Thursday afternoon, Biden was asked if he’s spoken to Trump directly.
“Are you kidding me? Mr. President Trump, former President Trump, get a life, man. Help these people,” Biden responded.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House remained essentially a dead heat on Friday — with 11 days to go until Election Day.
Kamala Harris was headed to Texas to highlight abortion access and Donald Trump was set to appear on Joe Rogan’s highly-popular podcast.
More than 31 million have voted as of Friday morning
As of Friday morning, more than 31 million Americans had voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Of the total early votes numbering 31,402,309, in-person early votes accounted for 13,687,197 ballots and mail-in ballots numbered 17,715,831.
This means that more than 16 million people have voted since Monday.
-ABC News’ Emily Chang
Harris to hit Trump for not releasing medical records at Texas rally on abortion rights
Harris will go after Trump in her speech in Houston, Texas, on Friday night that will focus on reproductive rights.
“The Attorney General of Texas is suing the United States Government so that Texas prosecutors can get their hands on the private medical records of women who leave the state to get care,” Harris will say, according to released excerpts of her speech.
“So, see what is happening: Donald Trump won’t let anyone see his medical records. But these guys want to get their hands on yours? Simply put: They are out of their minds,” she will say.
The vice president will reiterate her campaign pledge to push Congress to pass a bill restoring Roe v. Wade if elected.
“We are fighting for an America where, no matter who you are, or where you live, you can make that decision based on what is right for you and your family,” Harris will say.
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
Harris rips Trump over his ‘garbage can’ comments
Speaking to reporters before her event later today in Houston, Harris said she wanted to address Trump’s comment that America has become a “garbage can” and “dumping ground” for migrants from around the world.
“You know, it’s just another example of how he really belittles our country,” Harris said. “This is someone who is a former president of the United States, who has a bully pulpit, and this is how he uses it, to tell the rest of the world that somehow the United States of America is trash.”
“And I think, again, the president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invest in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” the vice president added.
Trump’s comments are the latest example of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie
Walz says it’s time to ‘execute’ at fundraiser
In what could have been his final financial event of the campaign, Tim Walz, at a fundraiser in Pennsylvania, said it was now time to use all that money to focus on the ground game.
“Now it’s time to execute … Never in my lifetime, would I have believed that the choice would be so stark,” he said.
The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee entered the final three weeks of the election with a clear cash advantage over the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, latest FEC records show.
As of Oct. 16, the Harris campaign, the DNC and their joint fundraising committees reported having nearly $270 million in cash on hand compared to $202 million the Trump campaign, the RNC and their joint fundraising committees had in the bank, the new filings show.
The Trump campaign committee, in particular, had $36 million in the bank as of Oct. 16 compared to the Harris campaign committee having $119 million in cash on hand.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Soorin Kim
Trump repeats threat to jail election officials
Trump on Friday reposted his earlier message promising, before any evidence of fraud, to prosecute and deliver long prison sentences for election workers and others who he deems to have cheated during November’s election.
“Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
Election officials had called such a threat “dangerous” given the heightened threat environment.
“It makes me concerned that this will set other people off. I think the one thing that we’ve seen before is that words have consequences and meaning,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told ABC News last month.
“And while we are concerned, we are also prepared. Elections officials across the country have been working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to monitor and track threats, to make sure we’re keeping our voters safe and make sure we’re keeping our elections officials safe,” Fontes said.
Harris says she hasn’t voted yet but it’s on ‘priority list’
Harris, taking reporter questions on Friday, was asked if she’s cast her ballot yet.
Her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, voted with his wife and son in Minnesota earlier this week.
Harris said she hasn’t voted but “it’s on my priority list for these next few days.”
Trump to call into Virginia rally after voter purge program halted Trump is attempting to place doubt about voter rolls in Virginia after a judge ordered voters purged from election rolls as a result of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directive to be reinstated.
A federal judge said on Friday Youngkin’s program violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.
“This is a totally unacceptable travesty, and Governor Youngkin is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it! Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote. Keep fighting, Glenn – AND REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA, KEEP VOTING EARLY!” Trump posted on his social media platform.
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump is set to rally with Youngkin on Saturday. Trump said he plans to call into the rally to highlight the issue.
“I will be calling in to Glenn’s Rally with Lara Trump tomorrow morning to talk about this crazy Ruling, and announce my final stop in Virginia before Election Day.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Pennsylvania county says it stopped thousands of voter registration fraud incidents
Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County Board of Elections said that approximately 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration applications were dropped off at the election office in two batches around the deadline to register.
The deadline to register in the swing state was Oct. 21.
The board said “concerns were raised” during the normal review process and law enforcement was alerted.
Notably, the board says in its statement that the fraud was “identified and contained” and lauded this incident as one that shows that the election “system is secure.”
“Our system worked,” the board declared. “We will continue to operate with the highest levels of veracity, integrity, and transparency so that Lancaster County voters can be confident in our election.”
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
The Washington Post won’t endorse a presidential candidate
The Washington Post announced Friday it will not issue an endorsement in this year’s election — a first for the legacy newspaper in more than three decades.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” publisher William Lewis wrote in a note explaining the decision.
The Post follows the Los Angeles Times in not backing a candidate.
Both newspapers had endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020 against Trump.
McConnell, Johnson rebuke Harris for calling Trump ‘fascist’
In a rare joint statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly condemned Harris calling Trump a “fascist” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
The two Republican leaders say Harris’ remarks have “only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus. Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.”
McConnell and Johnson say they have been briefed on the “ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump.”
Harris quickly seized on John Kelly’s comments to The New York Times this week that he believed Trump fit the description of a fascist. Kelly served as Trump’s chief of staff and is a retired general.
Trump has claimed for months that Harris is a “fascist” or “communist” or “Marxist.”
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
Virginia judge strikes down voter purge that impacted 1,600 people
A federal judge issued a partial ruling finding that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order to conduct a daily voter purge process violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.
A total of 1,600 voters removed from the rolls since August must be added back within the next five days.
The judge said the process left no room for individualized inquiry, which violated the act’s requirement that “when in the 90-day provisional, it must be done on an individualized basis.”
-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Trump zeroes in on ‘blue wall’ states
Trump will embark on a rigorous schedule making his final pitch to voters. The former president is focusing on the “blue wall” states this weekend and early next week, specifically targeting Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
After stops in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump will culminate his weekend campaigning with a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, in which the former president has coined as a “celebration of the whole thing” with his nine years of campaigning coming to close.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soorin Kim
Americans accused of noncitizen voter fraud face doxxing
Eliud Bonilla, a Brooklyn-born NASA engineer born to Puerto Rican parents, was abruptly purged from the voter rolls as a “noncitizen.”
Bonilla later voted without issue, but the nuisance soon became a nightmare after a conservative watchdog group published his personal information online after obtaining a list of the state’s suspected noncitizen voters.
“I became worried because of safety,” he told ABC News, “because, unfortunately, we’ve seen too many examples in this country when one person wants to right a perceived wrong and goes through with an act of violence.”
Bonilla’s story highlights a real-world impact of aggressive efforts to purge state voter rolls of thousands of potential noncitizens who have illegally registered. Many of the names end up being newly naturalized citizens, victims of an inadvertent paperwork mistake or the result of a clerical error, experts say. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Read more about Bonilla’s story and a fact check of noncitizen voting claims here.
Half of Americans see Trump as fascist, Harris viewed as pandering: POLL
A new poll from ABC News and Ipsos found half of Americans (49%) see Trump as a fascist, or “a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents.”
A majority of voters (65%) also said Trump often says things that are not true.
But Harris also faces perception headwinds, though far fewer Americans (22%) said they viewed her as a fascist.
Fifty-seven percent of registered voters said Harris is making proposals “that just are intended to get people to vote for her,” not that she intends to carry out. Just more than half (52%) said the same about Trump.
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan podcast in play for young male voters
Former President Donald Trump sits down with podcast host Joe Rogan for the first time Friday, appearing on the highly popular “The Joe Rogan Experience,” as he reaches out to an audience of mostly young males as potential voters.
The podcast, which boasts approximately 15.7 million followers, a Spotify representative confirmed to ABC News, is greater than the population of any of the seven election battleground states.